Monday, January 14, 2008

The lithograph above was purchased fromthe above artist who became a friend,after meeting him at the Caffe Trieste.

He was at the time, an artist working onthe side. After many visits he invited me to hishouse and studio. He studied in Europe inhis younger days and is very well known.

Last yr I wrote about my experience atStarbucks, which can be read here.

It just so happened they opened a store 45 minutesaway from us, not long after we closed ourcoffeehouse. Thinking it would be a good wayto get into management and be able to moveonce again to a larger city, I hesitantlyapplied. Although I was the only person who likedand had coffee experience, it took me a yr tobecome a shift manager.

I lasted 2 yrs and the rest is history.

It's with a bit of humor that I see McDonaldsgetting ready to put espresso machines andbaristas in their stores. And with even more humorthat SB rehired Shultz to put it in order again.

After my experience and seeing that most peoplewho frequent SB go for the flavored, not realcoffee, I think McDs will effectively kickSBs ass in their endeavor. There canbe no real difference in quality norappreciation of the coffee bean andwhere it comes from.

Not the worker bee who makes the drink,who doesn't know or care about coffee.

10 comments:

I found your place because you had left a comment on a post where I had left a comment, so I followed your link and here I am. And so glad too. What a lovely blog. I look forward to spending time here.

btw, I couldn't get any pictures to load on this post. maybe blogger ate them?

You remind me that so much of life can center around coffee. I had visitors this morning. As I ground the coffee, I learned from them that they had never before experienced freshly ground coffee. I believe that I could have sold them a coffee grinder, had I had an extra one.

we fought the coming of a Starbucks to our town, but to no avail. we don't go there unless family or friends are visiting and just have to have an 800 calorie coffee with flavorings and whipped cream. it was a meeting place for a small group we had but the lack of cleanliness drove us out. (4 female baristas talking and goofing off while the tables and floor were sticky and disgusting) Many of the younger people in our family seem addicted to Starbucks and drink two or three flavored coffees a day. Our local Mall has so many Starbucks kiosks--I don't see how they can stay in business--it looks like over-expansion here and in NYC.

Even though we have an SB's our many coffee hangouts are doing well too, and have brisk "to go" traffic as well. Pretty much everyone in my town is walking around with a coffee cup in hand.

I sometimes feel guilty because I am a tea drinker. But I do understand the political and social consequences of places like Starbucks. Overall, we are all casualties of the same war, just different battles.